Orange Semolina Cake with Orange and Mint Drizzle

Orange semolina cake with drizzle topping. It is cut into slices

4 from 4 votes

Orange Semolina Cake with Orange and Mint Drizzle

This quick & easy orange semolina cake recipe is oven-ready in just 15 minutes and it produces an impressive bake. The cake is full of flavour, deliciously moist and it comes topped with zesty orange and mint drizzle. This is the easiest semolina flour cake recipe you could wish for.

Prep Time15

Cook Time50

Total Time1 5

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Worldwide

Servings:

Calories: 308kcal

Author: Jane Coupland

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

100 g Semolina coarse (do not use fine ground)
100 g Caster sugar
50 g Ground almonds (almond meal)
1 teaspoon Baking powder
¼ teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda (baking soda)
¼ teaspoon Salt
1 Egg large, free-range
120 g Greek yoghurt
90 ml Milk Whole (full fat)
2 tablespoon Orange zest see notes
1 tablespoon Orange juice see notes
110 g Butter Melted

Orange Drizzle Topping Ingredients

45 ml Orange juice
15 ml Lemon juice
8 Mint leaves
100 g Granulated sugar (do not use caster sugar)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gm 4 and grease and line an 8 inch springform cake tin.
Put the dry ingredients (semolina, sugar, almond, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a medium bowl. Stir with a balloon whisk.
In a small bowl mix together the yoghurt, egg and milk, then pour into the dry ingredients.
Mix until smooth, using the balloon whisk.
Next, whisk in the orange juice & zest.
Finally, add the melted butter and mix again.
Pour into the prepared tin & bake for 45-50 minutes until the top is dark golden in colour and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.
When the cake is almost cooked, start preparing the drizzle topping by mixing the orange and lemon juice together and blitzing the mint leaves in, using a stick blender until they are finely broken down.
As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, add the sugar to the juice, stiring only briefly.
Poke holes all over the cake using a cocktail stick and spoon the drizzle topping evenly over the cake.
Leave the cake to cool completely in the baking tin, then carefully release the cake tin and remove the baking parchment.
Store for up to 3 days, well wrapped, at room temeperature.

Notes

Use digital scales for this recipe as they are so much more accurate than the cup system. Cups are notoriously inaccurate because they can vary in size and one person's method of filling a cup can be quite different to another person's.
Semolina does contain gluten, so it is not gluten-free.
You should be able to get the required amount of zest and juice from 1 large orange or 2 smaller ones.
I don't recommend the use of finely ground semolina in this recipe. Although there are cakes out there that do use fine ground semolina, part of the beauty of this orange semolina cake is the unique texture caused by the use of coarse ground semolina. It's not like a regular sponge cake. Instead, it has real bite and a great chewiness about it.
The drizzle topping must be poured over the cake as soon as possible once it comes out of the oven so that it is absorbed well by the cake. Make sure you prepare the citrus juice and mint so that all you have to do once the cake comes out of the oven is stir in the sugar, poke holes in the cake and pour the syrup over.
When making the topping don't be tempted to swap granulated sugar for caster sugar. The coarser texture of granulated sugar is what helps give the drizzle that lovely crunch that we all appreciate.
Likewise, resist the urge to stir the drizzle topping too much as this will dissolve the sugar.
Let the cake cool completely before slicing.
If stored in an airtight container at room temperature, this cake should stay fresh for 3 days. After this time it will begin to dry out - perhaps serve it with runny cream at this stage.

Nutrition